Orlando Smackdown: Dis vs. Uni. Ch.16 Japan Hates me, Just Hates me 7-13

[pkondz]

"... and the road will be repaired as soon as local authorities clear out the debris."
"Thanks for that update, Pam. Now in this next story, I don't know what a Nebo is, but apparently it's going to be on the couch tonight..."

Odd that of the two of them, only one appears to be laughing...

 

[MHSweb79]

I once celebrated National Komodo Lizard Day in the Galopogas Islands,,,

When did you guys go to the Galapagos Islands? I missed that TR.

Speaking of non-English speaking folks being chosen, we went to see Turtle Talk for the first time in January (I try to see at least one attraction I've never done before on each trip) when a little 3-4 year old boy was chosen to ask a question. "How....old....are...OOOH?" he asked, in heavily broken English being fed to him phonetically by his mother. Crush then asked him, "Oh, habla usted espanol, dude?" There was a long pause, then the kid put his mouth on the microphone and boomed, "BONJOUR!" Everybody laughed and Crush said, "Oh, I'm sorry dude, I don't speak German."

It was quite funny but I couldn't help wondering why the mother tried so hard to get her son picked to ask a question when he clearly didn't speak any English at all. (Another little kid asked, "How many baby fishes are there?" And Crush said, "Fourteen.")

 

[nebo]

There was a long pause, then the kid put his mouth on the microphone and boomed, "BONJOUR!"
.")

Oh, I love that song he did, "Thank you for lovin' me" Ok,, I need to get back to work, gotta see what I have so far....

 

[nebo]

Tuesday morning, check out day at Universal and I was rareing to got moving. Was't quite sure how this would go today, and I was a bit apprehensive.

You see,,, we are calling a cab to get to Disney,,,, but we need to stop at Walgreens first,,, on the way, for two things,,,Beer,,,,, and ,,,,, alltogether now class,,,,,VICODIN!
ES to be specific.

I had tried to phone it in yesterday,,, but you no lonoger can call an individual Walgreens pharmacy, to renew a script,,, it now goes through a central reservation type board,,a Florida thing,,kinda like calling Disney. I had my doubts it would bbe there ready for me in the morning,,,,,and with the cabbie out there with the meter running.

I hate the metric system,,, otherwise it would have been inches running.
I dunno,,, don't ask!

But the cabbie was right there, for us,,,,stopped at the Walgreens and Smidgy ran into the liquer side,,, while I ran to the pharmacy.

ANd,,,, the pharmacist never heard of me, nor had a refill order for my script.

Luckily,,, it was empty back there,,, and I had my old bottle with me just in case,,,,,and he turned out to be the voice of reason, seeing me with the old bottle,,," Sir,,, why don't you give me that and I'll refill it in a heartbeat."

5 minutes later I was out the door with a bunch of my little white buddies,,,, I even beat Smidgy back to the cab, guess it took longer to fill her beer prescription.

Then we were on our way to CBR.

I think with tip it ran about 50 bucks again, at least this guy would take a credit card. We went in for the dreaded checkin process at the Custom House.

Once again,,, I stood mostyly useless on the side while Smidgy checked us in,,,, then for where our room is,,,, we were told that we were in the last Martinique building.
We had requested Aruba or Jamaica.

We are paying for a water view room,,,,and that's a long, lonog walk,,, water or not.

But the check-er-in-er girl looked at me in shock when she read the displeasure on my face.

Did you know that the "last" and the "first" buildings are really a matter of one's perspective?

When she said "last" she was talking about the building right next to the food court,,,, and our room was on that side,,, you could probably not get closer to the Towne Center, food court and main pool.

So,,, as I'm thinking of the state of the trip report as I'm writing this now,,,I am going to try a different approach than my normal, chronoligical routine that I"ve always tried to do.

I'm going to run out of time doing it this way,,,so I'm just going to hit on either "high notes" or points of "interest",,, besides,,, who wants to read "then we did Spaceship Earth,, and then Soarin',,," (oh,,, oh,,, I can't,, I have to say it,,,"apostrophe trademarked")

But I do want to still get a few stories out,,, and I know Mike and Heather will be disapointed if I don't put them down after we met.
I mean put them down in a CHAPTER.

I mean, oh, never mind.

So there you have it.

Ok,,, resume.

We have the vewwy first building in Martinique, kaneeck aneeck, next to Old Port Royal,,, our room is even on that side as well, facing the lake dead on.

Now, I'm going to have to go and find the pictures,,, and I think I did a video shorty as well,,, my problem is Photobucket won't leave things alone,,, they keep changing their format and I don't adapt well to change,,, this could get ugly!

How about I just descibe it to you?
It has a door in the front,,,in the very back is where the bathroom is, and,,,, oh,,, ok,,, ok,,,I'll DO IT!

After we checked into the room, I took my walk around the second floor like I always do, cuz you don't want to be near her when she's unpacking, you could lose a limb.

And right around the corner,,, is a little coutyard with the cutest little smoking section,,,,

Isn't that a cozy little spot? Makes you want to take up smoking right then and there.

But the next two hours were a disappointmen though:
We changed and walked all twenty paces to the main pool area,, got a couple of goo lungers,,, and the lone cloud in the sky turned into Octomom, and reproduced.
big time! The temps went down over ten degrees and everybody there ran for some place warmer, like Winipeg.

About one in the afternoon, we bailed out as well when I couldn't see a hint of blue sky up there, and geesh,, guess what,, cocktail hour started early once again!

We did have early Ressies though for an early, ( I said that allready, didn't I?), meal at the Grand Floridian Cafe, I think they were for 5: 30. We then hoped to spend a little time in Magic Kingdom afterwards.
It's tricky this time of year,,, you need to know when they are closing the park early for Mickey's not so Scary, very Merry Christmas Party.

Oh, Grand Floridian,,, yeah,,, they do decorate it nice for the holidays:

I can't tell what I'm looking at here from the thumbshot

Ok,, that's enough of these kind of pictures,,, I'm boring myself now.

Now, I have to try to remember what we ate at the Cafe.

SMIDGY,,, HELP!

(Romeo and Juliet went out for lunch one day. They were going Dutch. But when the check came,, Juliet had forgotten her purse with money back at the castle. Sooooo

Rom-e owed
what
Juli
et)

( I know,, Nebo,, please retire soon)

Oh,, ok,,, we both got NY strip steaks,,, that were pretty darn good. We like this place a lot,,, it's not dark and gloomy,, it has high ceiling,, many bright chandeliers and as just a cheery looking place,, our window seat was the cherry on top.
I have to admit though,, I have read some other reviews that were less than encouraging,,, Shan,,, weren't you oneof them? So I guess it can be hit or miss,, which to me, applies to anywhere. But our service that night was also great. I even left an extra quarter over the 18% to show my appreciation!

We then took the monorail back to MK, where we then had/did, the strangest thing that night,,, for us.

We got throught the turnstyles and rigtht in front of the overhead train station,,, paused,,, and saw that in 20 minutes,,, the Main Street Electical Parade would start, and there was an opening right in front of us on the curb!

Hey,, why not? We can "knock this off the list" right now, and that's what we did.

Ok,, I can tell you that in my opinion,,, I MUCH prefer Spectromagic over MSEP, but this was ok as well,, first time we've ever watched a parade from the Main street section of the park.

After the parade, we only had about a half hour wait for Wishes,, and the new castle light show began in the meantime. No,, I had no idea what was going on,, or what the story was,,,, but it was kind of coool how they turned the actual castle in a movie projection screen.

Still standing in the middle of Main Street, we watched Wishes as well, but one problem was that they had hung up all these banners across Main Street, and no matter where you stood , they would block part of your view.
Along with the Orlando Magic Basketball team that was there putting their kids on their shoulders to see the fireworks.

Yes,,, then we left right after. How strange to go to the Magic Kingdom and never venture past Main Street!

And with that we'll call it a night.

 

[monymony3471]

But there was no mention of getting lucky?

Oh, you figured out how to post a TON of pictures.

Got it!

 

[shan23877]

Nebo! This is a family friendly board. No getting lucky and telling.

Warn't me who bashed the GFC. We've never tried the place-no princesses Glad that you enjoyed your meal there.

Pretty Smidgy with the gingerbread!

I'm with you on MSEP. I like it because it reminds me of childhood trips, but once every few years is enough for me.

 

[smidgy]

But our service that night was also great. I even left an extra quarter over the 18% to show my appreciation!




I have to clear this up right from the get go.

Smidgy NEVER leaves less than a 20% tip, unless service is really bad. I know Nebo was talking tongue in cheek, but I owe it to my fellow servers, just in case anyone thinks this is true. we don't get the automatic 18% added,as we are only a party of 2,anyway. but I always start my tip at 20%. (unless I'm eating at a breakfast place and the bill is like $9.00. I'm leaving at least $3.00, just for taking up her table)

 

[smidgy]

such a pretty, colorful smoking section!!!! sigh.

CBR is such a cheery, colorful resort. love the buildings in the pastels. and the pretty colorful umbrellas.

the quiet pools are so pretty! I didn't like that there are walls around each of the quiet pools.. it's pretty, but then you can't see the laggon. so I found us a spot once where I pulled the loungers out enough where we could still see out the opening to the lagoon . (we'll talk about that later..)


the one thing Nebo didn't like about our room.. even thought we had a dead on view of the lake, 2nd floor, we had to walk back towards the parking lot to get to the stairs. (yeah, I know, WAH WAH., we hate looking at cars or parking lots).... but you couldn't get a room closer to the food court, main pool, unless you were on the 1st floor. and at CBR, this is a BIG deal!!!

(hence the CMs quizzical look at Nebo's consternation! hope she didn't "red flag" us as being unappreciative of a free upgrade) this was definitely a preferred room.. we had only paid for a water view (only cause there were no standard views left).

oh yeah! we had the most friendly baggage guy who drove us over to our room. he had workde a CBR for like forever! when we got to the room, we were very happy. but we mentioned that the room just next to our was a corner room.. any chance of getting that? (with the extra window, we get extra light, which is really helpful for nebo's low vision.) that guy called front desk and tried to get us that room.. he siad he would have been able to get it, but the family checking in requested that SPECIFIC room number.. rats!!! but he hung around for a long time, wioaintg, trying.. when he COULD have been picking up more guests, getting more tips, so, naturally, I tipped him extra.

when we walked up to the room, there was an umbrella stroller (strombroller, in my day) just under the staircase. it would get to be a little game, to see how manydays the stroller sat there....)

did I mention how CHEERY this resort is?? colorful?? just wanted to make sure...

 

[pkondz]

Tuesday morning, check out day at Universal

You're only going to check out Universal today? What have you been doing all this time?

alltogether now class,,,,,VICODIN!
ES to be specific.

VICODIN! ES! wait.... vicodines? Is that pronounced vico-dine or vico-dinesse?

I had tried to phone it in yesterday,,,

Nope. No just phoning in the TR chapter. Put some effort into it man!

and with the cabbie out there with the meter running.

I hate the metric system,,, otherwise it would have been inches running.
I dunno,,, don't ask!

Oh, dear.

As a Canadian I'm supposed to be well versed in the metric system. But I'm still more comfortable with Imperial or Standard.

So I don't want to correct you on your own system, but...
You don't measure running with inches,


everyone knows you need feet for running.

But the cabbie was right there, for us,,,,stopped at the Walgreens and Smidgy ran into the liquer side,,, while I ran to the pharmacy.

I couldn't do it. I just couldn't leave the cab with the meter running. (Actually, a meter is closer to a yard... so... oh never mind)

I'd be too paranoid about how much it's costing me while I stood in line at the checkout.

ANd,,,, the pharmacist never heard of me, nor had a refill order for my script.

I'm sure you were shocked.

Luckily,,, it was empty back there,,, and I had my old bottle with me just in case,,,,,and he turned out to be the voice of reason, seeing me with the old bottle,,," Sir,,, why don't you give me that and I'll refill it in a heartbeat."

Nice to know that here and there are still people willing to use common sense and help someone out. That seems to be getting more and more rare these days.

5 minutes later I was out the door with a bunch of my little white buddies,,,,

Nice! Always good to make new friends. BTW, did you get your vikes?

I even beat Smidgy back to the cab, guess it took longer to fill her beer prescription.

We went in for the dreaded checkin process at the Custom House.

That surprised me. I thought you kinda enjoyed the whole "thrill of the hunt" aspect of finding a good room.

we were told that we were in the last Martinique building...

But the check-er-in-er girl looked at me in shock when she read the displeasure on my face.

Did you know that the "last" and the "first" buildings are really a matter of one's perspective?

Ha! I never, ever, would've considered the first building to be "the last" one.

Hmmm... just looked at the CBR map. I guess if you consider Building 31 in Trinidad North as the first building and go clockwise, then Building 26 in Martinique (which I presume is where you were) would be last.

I am going to try a different approach than my normal, chronoligical routine that I"ve always tried to do.

Emphasis on "tried", right?

who wants to read "then we did Spaceship Earth,, and then Soarin',,,"

It depends on how often you injure yourself.

(oh,,, oh,,, I can't,, I have to say it,,,"apostrophe trademarked")

Got that off your chest? Feel better now? It's like that little apostrophe shaped and sized piece of meat that's caught in your teeth. You just can't leave it alone until you get it out.

I know Mike and Heather will be disapointed if I don't put them down after we met.
I mean put them down in a CHAPTER.

I mean, oh, never mind.

Ok,,, resume.

You're going to show us your resume? You really don't have to. We're enjoying the TR, you don't have to apply for the position... it's yours.

We have the vewwy first building in Martinique, kaneeck aneeck,

I will personally send one Wunderbar chocolate bar to anyone other then Nebo, Smidgy or myself who knows what that means.

Without Googling it.

my problem is Photobucket won't leave things alone,,, they keep changing their format and I don't adapt well to change,,, this could get ugly!

The official date you have to change is March 18th. I'm hanging on to the old version as long as I can.

Always try to hang onto old versions.... they're getting rarer and rarer in this day and age.

After we checked into the room, I took my walk around the second floor like I always do, cuz you don't want to be near her when she's unpacking, you could lose a limb.

But if you're near her when she's packing you'd at least know where you're limb was going to be.

Isn't that a cozy little spot? Makes you want to take up smoking right then and there.

Go find the cackler and then you'd have smoke coming from your ears... problem solved.

got a couple of goo lungers,,,

Perhaps. But now that you've quit smoking, they should start to clear up.

The temps went down over ten degrees and everybody there ran for some place warmer, like Winipeg.

Never heard of it. Sounds delightful.

:

We did have early Ressies though for an early, ( I said that allready, didn't I?), meal at the Grand Floridian Cafe,

Just once I'd like somebody to have late ressies for an early meal or an early ressie for a late meal.

Wait! You can!

You didn't have time for lunch so you make an early supper ressie for a late lunch.

Gawd, I'm good.

Oh, Grand Floridian,,, yeah,,, they do decorate it nice for the holidays:

Yup. Very nice... Oh, and the decorations behind her are nice too.

I can't tell what I'm looking at here from the thumbshot

Just a swan that's just killed another swan. Probably rendered mad from an overdose of bling.

Is it just me? Or does that look like one ticked off, glaring Santa?

Ok,, that's enough of these kind of pictures,,, I'm boring myself now.

And on this next slide is another shot of Martha standing in a field...
And on this next slide is another shot of Martha standing in a field...
And on this next slide is another shot of Martha standing in a field...
And on this next slide is another shot of Martha standing in a field...
And on this next slide is another shot of Martha standing in a field...
And on this next slide is...

National News! Homicide deemed justifiable... even desirable!

(Romeo and Juliet went out for lunch one day. They were going Dutch. But when the check came,, Juliet had forgotten her purse with money back at the castle. Sooooo

Rom-e owed
what
Juli
et)

No comment.

So, so, no comment...

Whoops! Looks like I've shown you a way to shut me up.

( I know,, Nebo,, please retire soon)

Expecting a snide remark?

Nope.

Keep on writin', dude.

But our service that night was also great. I even left an extra quarter over the 18% to show my appreciation!

Wow! Let's see, that's 18% plus one quarter, or 25% is 32%. Must've been pretty darned good.





So just curious...
How many people saw the 32% and just kept reading without giving it a second thought?
How many people didn't even notice it was 32%?
How many people thought, "Oh, that pkondz, what a dummy, it's 33 not 32."?
How many people thought, "Oh, that pkondz, what a dummy, it's 42 not 32."?
How many people thought, "Oh, that pkondz, what a dummy, it's 43 not 32."?
How many people thought, "Oh, that pkondz, what a dummy."?
How many people thought, "Oh, a post by pkondz, I'll just skip it."?

We then took the monorail back to MK, where we then had/did, the strangest thing that night,,, for us.

Strange for you? That opens up a whole gamut of possibilities...

Still standing in the middle of Main Street, we watched Wishes as well, but one problem was that they had hung up all these banners across Main Street, and no matter where you stood , they would block part of your view.

That's just... weird looking.

Along with the Orlando Magic Basketball team that was there putting their kids on their shoulders to see the fireworks.

How strange to go to the Magic Kingdom and never venture past Main Street!

And with that we'll call it a night.

That is strange. I can't imagine doing that short of a medical emergency (ok, so maybe not so strange for you).

Thanks for the chapter, dude! :

 

[pkondz]

Smidgy NEVER leaves less than a 20% tip, unless service is really bad. but I always start my tip at 20%. (unless I'm eating at a breakfast place and the bill is like $9.00. I'm leaving at least $3.00, just for taking up her table)

Ya know, I never thought of that. If I'm eating somewhere and my bill is $9.00 I'd leave a Twoonie (that's a $2 coin) and think, "I just tipped more than 20%." But you're right. $2 isn't enough even if it is more than 20%. I'm going to start doing that minimum $3 from now on.

when we walked up to the room, there was an umbrella stroller (strombroller, in my day) just under the staircase.

strombroller? You mean this guy?

 

[mmeb144]

How many people thought, "Oh, a post by pkondz, I'll just skip it."?

 

[billdog718]

Yea I actually have been on here since 1997, but I couldnt remember my old usernam and password at the time so I made a new account. I usually come on here when I'm about to go to get in the mood (que porn music......ewww) Don't pay ant attention to the idiot behind the curtain. I'm starting to break a sweat so I'll end this post, now back to your regulary scheduled Nebo trip report.

 

[cjlvsccm]

Thanks for taking the time to respond Lady H,,hope your allergies improve.
Feel for ya, Heather. High pollen counts around here, too -- conifers are the culprits. My allergy season goes from Feb-Dec!!

Luckily,,, it was empty back there,,, and I had my old bottle with me just in case,,,,,and he turned out to be the voice of reason, seeing me with the old bottle,,," Sir,,, why don't you give me that and I'll refill it in a heartbeat."
Score!!

When she said "last" she was talking about the building right next to the food court,,,, and our room was on that side,,, you could probably not get closer to the Towne Center, food court and main pool.
Again, SCORE!!


Martinique, kaneeck aneeck
????


...and the lone cloud in the sky turned into Octomom, and reproduced.



The temps went down over ten degrees and everybody there ran for some place warmer, like Winipeg.
Boy howdy, that WAS a chill!

Hey,, why not? We can "knock this off the list" right now, and that's what we did.
It has been a while since you've knocked something over...

Martinique, kaneeck aneeck
I will personally send one Wunderbar chocolate bar to anyone other then Nebo, Smidgy or myself who knows what that means.

Without Googling it.
I'm out. Still ????


Just a swan that's just killed another swan. Probably rendered mad from an overdose of bling.




Is it just me? Or does that look like one ticked off, glaring Santa?
Very much like the 3-story King Triton statue at Art of Animation resort... he looks POSSESSED!!!

Have a good weekend, all! And wish me luck... we have a contract for the sale of my pre-marriage house, tentative closing in 2 weeks!!

 

[cjlvsccm]

Oh yeah, I forgot something...

Can't you just hear the song playing in your head;
"Sunny D's, make me feel fine"

What's sad is that i actually just sang it exactly like that in my head.

I was going to go a bit further in the song line,, but wasn't sure of the next line,,, was it "going through the chasms of my mind,,iiiiind?"

it's ... "Blowin' through the jasmine in my mi-iiii-nnd"


But maybe the chasms in your mind make you feel fine, I dunno.

 

[Thumper_Man]

I will personally send one Wunderbar chocolate bar to anyone other then Nebo, Smidgy or myself who knows what that means.

Without Googling it.

Let us pray. Or shall we be singing along with the nuns?

And no I didn't Google it if I'm on the right track.

 

[margymas]

But our service that night was also great. I even left an extra quarter over the 18% to show my appreciation!




I have to clear this up right from the get go.

Smidgy NEVER leaves less than a 20% tip, unless service is really bad. I know Nebo was talking tongue in cheek, but I owe it to my fellow servers, just in case anyone thinks this is true. we don't get the automatic 18% added,as we are only a party of 2,anyway. but I always start my tip at 20%. (unless I'm eating at a breakfast place and the bill is like $9.00. I'm leaving at least $3.00, just for taking up her table)

Agreed 100%. Once you have waited able and/or tended bar, (i) you always appreciate and reward the efforts of servers appropriately and (ii) you have little patience for uncaring and sloppy work. I, too, always make sure to leave the appropriate tip - and maybe a bit extra 'cause being a server s a tough life. But, it is also true that servers who feel they are "owed" simply for showing up and not dropping your drink in in your lap aren't worth my time. As a matter of fact, one of the best tips I have ever left was for a waitress who dumped my meal all over the floor next to my chair. It was an honest stumble and she pulled out all the stops (as did the manager) to correct things quickly.

 

[buzz1121]

Was it just me or did everyone feel a little giddiness when Nebo started the new chapter to begin the Disney portion of the trip?

It's amazing, but I can feel the magic and I am excited to read the rest of your trip report.

Nebo, it's a great "teaser" chapter for sure....you're at CBR, go to the GF for dinner and to see the decorations, and hit the MK for a brief visit. I enjoy getting to "be at Disney" through your TRs.

I'm certainly glad you didn't "put down" the Thumpers. I like them a lot and couldn't imagine the TR without them.

I appreciate all the pictures Nebo. DD1 says she wants to stay in the "dollhouse" hotel at Disney sometime. We have had dinner there several times, but we have never stayed at the GF. I believe you have a positive opinion of the pool, but what is your overall opinion of the resort?

We always seem to hit MSEP when we are trying to sneak into MK to ride a few things before park close. We even joke about how we have become skilled in threading through the masses of people watching the parade.

 

[buzz1121]

Pkondz, "kaneeck aneeck" merits a Wunderbar?

Yum......Wunderbars, I can't wait to be in the Canadian Pavilion at Epcot.

Wunderbars are to Buzz as Zebra Domes are to Pkondz.

 

[Thumper_Man's Wife]

I'm certainly glad you didn't "put down" the Thumpers. I like them a lot and couldn't imagine the TR without them.

I feel so loved!!! <3

 

[Rozz]

Finally, the Disney segment of the trip! Actually, it's all been good but I've been looking forward to this part of the trip report.

We love the CBR too! Sounds like you got a fantastic room.

I found a life saving tip in your Disney chapter...your walk around the 2nd floor while smidgy unpacks so that you are out of the danger zone. I need to suggest this tactic to my husband. We've got a Disney trip coming up soon and I'd hate for him to sustain an injury the 1st day of the trip because he got in my way or unpacked something and put it in the wrong place.

Great photos! The night time parade shots are so good! The Main Street Electrical Parade was the 1st night time parade I saw at Disney so it brings back a special memory to see the floats. Thanks for these photos!